The British weather in May was the worst since a chap called Noah went into B&Q and asked for two million tonnes of four-be-two, some feather boarding and a billion gallons of water resistant varnish. All of this whilst Pendle Borough Council announced 837,234 hits on their website in the same month; a record.
During May 2021 there were 1,011 registered company insolvencies, of which 31 were Compulsory Liquidations (6 per cent lower than May 2020 and 89 per cent lower than May 2019), 930 were CVLs, which is 18 per cent higher than May 2020 but 3 per cent lower than May 2019 and six were CVAs (50 per cent lower than May 2020 and 81 per cent lower than May 2019). There were 43 Administrations, which is 61 per cent lower than May 2020 and 55 per cent lower than May 2019; and one lonely, pointless Receivership.
As a (glorious) profession we can understand why the statistics are still low, but if we can muster the enthusiasm in all this wonderful summer heat we may find it interesting that Creditors' Voluntary Liquidations are nearly back at pre pandemic levels. Personally, we still think the May weather rainfall is more compelling, but that depends upon your point of view.
If your bag is Personal Insolvency, 'Breathing Space' is going to be included in the formal numbers from June, which already makes next month's report more interesting than this. In the meantime, there were 1,525 DROs and 718 Bankruptcies in May 2021 in England & Wales.
The number of DROs in May 2021, which was similar to May 2020 and 33 per cent lower than in May 2019. The 3 per cent of Bankruptcies which were lower than last year were made up of 647 debtor applications and 71 creditor petitions. Of these, the creditor petitions were 39 per cent higher and most notably one was by Neil against his robbing, thieving builder who decided it would be a neat idea to take £20,000 to order materials for a build at Taylor Towers and then forget to buy any.
Creditor petitions were particularly low in May 2020 as this was during the first UK lockdown. Compared to May 2019, total Bankruptcies were 50 per cent lower; debtor applications were 44 per cent lower and creditor petitions were 76 per cent lower. For those still awaiting the freefall in Bankruptcy applications we can announce that they have now moved to within three feet of the cliff edge and a car with no brakes is now heading in their direction.
Meanwhile, IVAs seem to be back to pre-pandemic levels. There were, on average, 7,393 IVAs registered per month in the three-month period ending May 2021. This is 6 per cent lower than for the three-month period ending May 2020, and 4 per cent higher than the three-months ending May 2019.
More interestingly, in May 2021, the DVA conducted over 48,300 full driving tests, 655 more compared with April and 76 per cent of the five year May average (63,704). Private Cars accounted for 80 per cent of all full tests conducted in May (38,849). And before we go, Barry Callebaut’s cocoa pioneer brand Van Houten announced in May a ruby chocolate option aimed specifically at the hospitality sector, specifically baristas and coffee bars. Yum.
